end on an upward trajectory, getting the best possible people around him as confederates in the u.s. senate, strong ministers in the cabinet around him. go for it, mr. president. good isn't great. great is great. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "politicsnation" with al sharpton starts right now. >> thanks, chris. thanks to you for tuning in. tonight's lead -- still conservative after all this year. governor romney spent the whole gop primary season catering to the right, telling immigrants to self-deport, bragging that he'd get rid of planned parenthood, saying he'd cut everyone's taxes. so, how did that work out for him? here's how mr. romney was recently spotted pumping his own gas in california. no secret service, no advisers, and no words on whether he used regular or premium. romney thought he'd be on the road to the white house by now. instead, he's just on the road.

meanwhile, the president is heading home on air force one after meeting with world leaders. he didn't pump the gas for that plane. here's the point. elections have consequences. the american people rejected romney's right wing views. but a lot of republicans didn't get the message. bill o'reilly is still defending romney's claim that the president won because of gifts to minorities. >> again, that's the truth. it is a stone cold fact that lower income americans, largely, re-elected president obama. now, the left is going to scream when you say that because they don't want to acknowledge the economics of the vote. liberals want to see themselves as noble. they don't want to consider the fact that entitlements buy votes. >> hear that?

over at fox romney's right arm. and there's a lot of other republicans who are also drawing the wrong lessons from romney's defeat. they say he lost because he was not conservative enough. not conservative enough? really? well, have no fear, republicans, there's plenty of far right to go around. former gop presidential candidate ron paul has decided that, quote, secession is a deeply american principle. nothing treasonous or unpatriotic about it. folks, this party might talk a big game about moving to the center, but they're still headed right off the cliff. joining me now is krystal ball,

jonathan capehart, writer for "the washington post" and an msnbc contributor. thanks for coming on the show. >> thanks for having us. >> gop consultant mike murphy tweeted something interesting today. he said, quote, one sad possibility, mitt was our hubert h. humphrey, 1968 equivalent. next up? our mcgovern of 1972. yes, it could get even worse before it gets better. the point murphy is making is that democrats ignored their loss in the election in 1968. instead of nominating a more modern figure in '72 they went further to the left and lost probably the biggest loss of that time. i think the governor only won one state. do you think that's going to happen to the republicans? >> i certainly think it's possible and somewhat of an

argument can be made that they already sort of went down that path. the argument after john mccain in 2008 was he wasn't conservative enough. a lot of people are still saying he wasn't a real conservative. he really didn't believe in the values. there's also this notion that, you know, the problem isn't the policies. it's the marketing. we didn't do a good enough job selling ourselves to the people. rather than doing real soul-searching about the fact that the country is in a different place. it's not that you weren't articulating your values well, it's that the country understood what you stood for and didn't want anything to do with it. >> jonathan, you heard a lot of those republican leaders after the election saying, well, we need to reach out more to peo e people, we need to reach out more to latinos. not change the policy but reach out more. but then you hear bill o'reilly saying that obama's voters don't

believe in self-relanciance. how is this for reaching out? >> a coalition of voters put the president back in office. that coalition was nontraditional. which means it veered away from things like traditional marriage, robust capitalism and self-releeance. each constituency that voted for the president, whether it's single women, african-americans, hispanic-americans, had reasons for doing so. they traditionally want smaller government, more local control. some believe in american exceptionalism. >> i mean, republicans getting the wrong message out of this? i mean, who are the traditional people they're talking about? do they still exist? >> well, what he's talking about in that sense is white voters. i mean, he said that on election night. he's continuing to say it. i think bill o'reilly, rush

limbaugh and those guys are still sort of in their petulent phase and trying to figure out why their vision of america didn't pan out two weeks ago today. while you have others in the republican party trying to deal with reality, martinez in new mexico, jindal in louisiana. they are speaking up forcefully about what the republican party needs to do to ensure, from their perspective, the drubbing they got by the democratic presidential nominee two weeks ago doesn't happen to their party and to their nominee come 2016. i mean, it's the right message for them -- it's the right way for them to be thinking if they want to save their party f they want their party to not slide any further into being a regional party but to still be a national party and a national party that actually knows how to govern. >> now, krystal, when you look at the fact that the campaign

manager for the manager, jim messina, at a breakfast this morning, he said that the white house feared running against huntsman. take a look. >> we were honest about our concerns about huntsman. you know, i think huntsman would have been a very tough general election candidate. it's someone who helped manage his confirmation for chinese ambassador, i can tell you, you know, he's a good guy. we looked at his profile in the general election and thought he would have been difficult. >> so, whereas you're seeing some of the o'reilly, limbaugh types still saying, let's go further right, you're hearing their opposition, the president's campaign manager saying, we were more afraid of the moderate guy. doesn't that tell them something or are they not listening? >> jon huntsman was governor of utah, perhaps the most conservative state in the country. he's no liberal but he has sense

and reason and would have been a more appealing candidate than mitt romney. i still think the president would have won. to this point, you know, the primaries are really where the republican party has a problem. they have spent so long telling the tea party and telling the far right, you're right. you are morally just. everything you're saying is correct. that they've allowed that wing of the party to take over the entire party. so, in the primaries this year, you know, you saw even jon huntsman raising hi hand and saying, he wouldn't vote for the 10-1 spending cuts to tax increases deal. it's going to be a real test in 2014 in the midterms to see if they are able to field a corroborate of reasonable moderate candidates who are appealing in a general election. >> well, jonathan, the elections are -- come down to numbers. it comes down to who gets the most votes. can't the republicans see that they've been rejected? they've lost the popular vote in

the last five of six elections. none of their candidates won as many electoral votes as president obama did in 24 years. so, if they just look at the numbers, tekd tell they're being rejected, no matter who the candidates are, their policies are being rejected. >> that was one sad looking elephant. >> right. there have been a few polls out since the election that shows that if the republican party were more hospitable, both in terms of tone but also policies, that they could have picked off any number of the president's -- any number of votes from the president's coalition. the naacp has a battleground poll that shows if, for instance, the republican party were in line with african-american's thinking on civil rights and equality issues, they could have gotten 14% of that vote. lbgt voters told harrison

interactive on logo tv that if the republican party and republican nominee, mitt romney, had the same position as democratic party and president obama on lgbt issues, that 22% of those -- of lbgt voters, gay voters, would have been more likely to vote for mitt romney. and then you have latino voters, where if you just had, you know, a change here and there, particularly on immigration issues, that latino voters would have gone for mitt romney. >> i think the opposite is true. my problem with all those studies is you have to factor in not only they didn't go with the policies, they were actually fighting those communities. >> right, right. >> self-deportation, they were against lesbian and gay rights, and they were the supporters of voter suppression. that also helped their problem. but krystal and jonathan, thanks for your time this evening. >> thanks. >> have a good thanksgiving. >> catch krystal on "the cycle"

weekdays at 3 p.m. right here on msnbc. coming up, he ran on it, he promised it and he is fighting for it. president obama's going outside of washington to sell his fairness plan. and the gop conspiracy theory on benghazi is crumbling. but that's not stopping nearly 100 members of the house from attacking. what is this all about? congressman james clyburn joins us. plus, chris christie broke the gop rule. he dared to be bipartisan with president obama. so, he wound up on the phone with rupert murdoch? that amazing story is coming up. and why is president obama tweeting this picture today? you're watching "politicsnation" on msnbc. >> let's take a look at some things that have gone out of business. we mentioned, of course, host s hostess. say good-bye to hostess. borders is going out of business.

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. have you joined the "politicsnation" conversation on facebook yet? our facebook family weighed in on vice president biden's early thanksgiving dinner last night for injured members of our military. the vice president and his wife have done a lot for veterans and their families. sandra said, a wonderful gesture. i told my husband, a vietnam vet, and he was filled with emotion. and today is also biden's 70th birthday. president obama tweeted out his birthday wishes for the vp with this great photo of the two. they look like they're having fun in this one. charlene added her wishes, enjoy

and take no malarkey on your birthday. i like that one. molly said, mr. biden, you got the best birthday gift we could give you -- for more years. we want to hear what you have to say. go to facebook and search "politicsnation" and "like" us to join the conversation that keeps going long after the show ends. my insurance rates are probably gonna double.

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approved. i'm really proud of that. i'm really proud of you. and what you -- [ applause ] >> that was president obama's emotional appeal to his campaign staff after the election. he's now looking to turn what many call the greatest political operation in modern history into an unprecedented force for good in washington. reports say the obama campaign is planning to use its massive database of voters and activists to pressure lawmakers on fairness. and advance the president's second term agenda. >> we built through gas roots campaign in modern political history for that moment to get more people involved in the process. i think my future is probably outside the white house, helping him and becoming a part of whatever happens to our social

movement, to help advocate for his agenda. >> the president's planning was vir actually a second campaign. traveling around the country to rally support on raising taxes for the rich and his allies in the labor movement are airing new tv ads, warning democrats to protect the safety net and not give in to republicans. >> how do we move our country forward and reduce the deficit? by creating jobs and growing our economy. not by cutting programs that families rely on most. for working families, it's all about putting americans back to work. not cutting the things we rely on most. >> of course, republicans are still talking about cutting programs for the elderly and the poor, while refusing to raise tax rates on the wealthy. excuse me, but didn't we already have this debate? republicans lost the argument on

election night. joini i and about to lose it again. thank you for joining me, congresswoman. >> my pleasure, reverend al. >> will it take pressure from outside washington to get republicans to see the light on raising tax rates for the rich? >> i always believe people power will trump money and lobbyists. putting together this campaign now to use in order to pass an agenda makes total sense. this doesn't just rely on battleground states anymore. people in districts all over the country that support this agenda, and, in fact, we could engage some republicans and even tea party people and independents to lobby for an agenda to grow our economy and

not just exclusively focus on agenda cuts. the majority of americans want to see tax cuts for the middle class and to reduce the tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of americans. now let's translate that into action, into phone calls. labor in terms of tv ads. we need to mobilize this majority that elected the president of the united states. they did it for a reason, because they want this agenda. let's put it to work. you know, people can go to theaction theaction.org, it's a website created by allies of the president to do just that, to put things in motion. >> congresswoman, you're there on the hill. what is your sense, do you think there's been any shift at all, any movement at all that the republicans get it or at least more open to dialogue now that would make sense for americans?

>> i definitely feel there's a new tone. i think i see it most clearly on issues like immigration, where they certainly get it now. and i think we're going to be able to move forward very quickly. i think even on these fiscal issues that i think there's just a different attitude about sitting down, as we always have in the past, to negotiate something that's really fair. that not everyone on either side is going to -- is going to like. but i think the president, having sat down some markers, that it's really important that de that. that we not accept a deal that's not fair. >> what is interesting when you talk about the fiscal discussions, i was reading an article in "the new york times" today about how the gop is even crumbling on grover norquist's no tax pledge.

senator chambliss is saying, i'm frankly not concerned about the norquist pledge. i'm quoting him there. senator mccain, quote, fewer and fewer people are signing this, quote, pledge. senator coburn, tortured vision of this tax penalty is his quote. they're openly moving away from this tax pledge of norquist. that's a sign of something. >> i think it is. i was just on a tv show with freshman republican from my state, illinois, who said he signed that pledge initially when he was running but now he says the only pledge he wants to sign or that he'll sign up with is his oath of office. his pledge to protect the constitution. so i think you're seeing republicans run away from that pledge. as arrogant as grover norquist is, i think he'll see some real erosion. >> congresswoman, thanks for

your time tonight. >> always. thank you, reverend al. ahead, we thought the relationship cooled but tonight we have new inside details of what happened between mitt romney and chris christie in the final week of the election. all of a sudden scott walker wants to change 40-year-old voting law. gee, i wonder why? my commentary's coming up. this is "politicsnation," only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

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the denny's owner who made headlines by freaking out over the health care law has gotten grand slammed by his boss. last week john metz told "the huffington post" he recalled what he called a 5% obama care surcharge on meals at denny's 30 restaurants across florida. in response some denny's strants were threatened with calls and threats of boycotts. so the ceo told metz to knock it off. and metz backed down, saying they will not have a surcharge after all. this guy was on the wrong side of the issue but he's not the only one. at least 18 states, most of them run by far right governors, say they won't set up exchanges for people to buy insurance.

they'll let the federal government do it instead. of course, they don't realize public opinion is turning in favor of the law. 49% of americans want to keep or expand the law. only 33% want to repeal it. that's the lowest support for repeal since the health care law was passed. and it will only get more popular. the health department has just released the rules on coverage for people with preexisting conditions. that's what the law does. it protects people with preexisting conditions. it allows young people to stay on their parents' plans. it offers free preventive care and provides discounts for seniors' prescriptions. it's not hard to see who's winning on this side of the issue. >> i saw just the other day in mentor, ohio, where a father told the story of his 8-year-old

daughter whose long battle with leukemia nearly cost their family everything. had it not been for health care reform passing just a few months before the insurance company was about to stop paying for her care. >> did right-wingers think we wouldn't call them out for fighting a law that's already doing a whole lot of good? nice try but we got you. in a minute but this is a real quick meal, that's perfect for two! campbell's chunky beef with country vegetables, poured over rice! [ male announcer ] campbell's chunky soup. it fills you up right. but with advair, i'm breathing better. so now i can be in the scene. advair is clinically proven to help significantly improve lung function. unlike most copd medications, advair contains both an anti-inflammatory and a long-acting bronchodilator working together to help improve your lung function all day.

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governor romney may go to new jersey to tour some of the damage with you? >> i have no idea, nor am i the least bit concerned or interested. >> right. >> i've got a job to do here in new jersey that's much bigger than presidential politics and i could care less about any of that stuff. i have a job to do. i have 2.4 million people out of power. devastation on the shore, floods in the northern part of my state. if you think i give a damn about presidential politics, then you don't know me. >> four days later, rupert murdoch the news corps chairman, owner of fox news fired off this tweet, quote, christie must redeclare for romney or take blame for the next four dire years. today we're learning the fascinating inside details of what happened next. the same day as the tweet, governor romney personally reached out to murdoch with a phone call. "the new york times" reports, quote, mr. christie told mr. murdoch that amid the

devastation, new jersey needed friends, no matter their political party. according to people briefed on the discussion, but mr. murdoch was blunt. mr. christie risked looking like a spoiler unless he publicly affirmed his support for mr. romney. something the governor did do the next day. and the next day, governor christie said this -- >> i endorse mitt romney 13 months ago because i thought he was the best guy for the job. on tuesday i'm voting for mitt romney because i think he's the best guy on the job but it doesn't mean i can't turn to the president of the united states of america and say to him, thank you, sir, for providing good leadership in this crisis and for helping the people of new jersey and to extend my hand of friendship to him. >> so in a time of crisis in new jersey, the governor was basically forced to re-endorse mitt romney by rupert murdoch? governor christie did the right

thing, he put party politics aside. he showed how government is supposed to work. both party leaders working together for the common good. it was a breath of fresh air. and for that, he was threatened by the gop big wigs? the fact that christie's political career can be damaged by any of this shows how disgusting the republican party can be. joining me now is joel madison, nationally syndicated radio hose on sirius/xm's the power and michelle carter, washington correspondent for "newsweek" and "the daily beast." thank you both for being here tonight. >> thanks. >> joe, let me go to you first. christie calls boss murdoch but seems like the right wing is still furious with him. >> well, he understood american history, contemporary american history. let's go back 53 years.

john f. kennedy versus richard nixon. nixon was called to call mrs. king when martin luther king jr. was thrown into georgia's state prison and they didn't know if he would be safe or not. he wouldn't do it. republicans, once again, didn't do what they should have done. john kennedy did it. reluctantly, but he did it. and what happened? daddy king and the civil rights leaders and african-americans said, you know what, that's a president who cares about our leader, therefore, cares about the civil rights movement. and it was a turning point because, remember, most, most blacks were republicans at the time. >> including daddy king was a republican. >> including daddy king, who said, i'm going to be voting democratic. now, second thing that happened, and that was, donors started getting on christie's case.

they started calling. they didn't call these million dollar donors, they didn't call saying, can i write you a check? how can i help you? they said, why are you so cozy with the president at a time when people didn't have homes, power, food, and were losing lives. that's what turned this around. christie did the right thing. and i suspect that he's going to be the winner in the end. >> well, michelle, the fact is that "the times" reported the negative reaction, the people around christie off guard and the reaction by the donors, christie and them were totally surprised. it says, let me read a quote, mr. christie and his advisers were startled to hear from out of state toners to mr. romney who had little interest in the hurricane and viewed him solely as a campaign surrogate,

demanding to know why he stood so close to the president on the tarmac. one of them questioned why he had boarded mr. obama's helicopter. still a bitterness lingers among top financial donors to mr. romney. a top romney aide described contributors as, quote, furious with mr. christie. when you look at the donors, when you look at what happened with mr. murdoch, i mean, what is this saying? >> look, the man's state was under water. he was not worried about republican party politics. but everybody else in the party was because they were facing a scary election day. and they needed somebody to blame. they were just grasping, lashing out. any kind of, you know, sign that christie was legitimatizing president obama was going to give them a collective nosebleed. so, i think he had to expect this, but at the same time, you

know, i think his reaction was the appropriate one, which is, you know, what do you expect me to do? and i think that's really going to be to his benefit going down the road. >> what does this mean, joe, for the republican -- you know, putting aside the specifics of this story with "the new york times" and murdoch and christie, clearly that has already happened, what does it tell us overall about the tone and the future of this party if it maintains this kind of tone? >> well, what it does is that don't listen to their tones. listen to their policies. listen to what's in their heart. i mean, look, we were all crying and you helped raise money, i helped raise money, people all over were donating to the red cross. let me tell you what it says. it shows you, and i'll just say it, how cold-hearted can you be? when people are under water, people are dying, a woman has

her children swept from her arms, and you're wondering why the president and a governor, whose state will never be the same, are trying to work with each other? what it says is that they're more concerned about winning elections, more -- no, here it is. they're more concerned about power than they are principle. >> well, michelle, let me ask you, what does this do to moderates that may not be hard right-wingers, how does this play to moderates? and will the hard right try to use this to take christie down? >> i think for every hard right republican who freaked out about christie's embrace of obama, you had other moderates out there who thought, at last, a guy who can see past kind of the nasty bitterness. so, i think on the whole he did himself some good with that great centrist and moderate,

independent middle that everybody's always fighting for. i do think that come 2016, it's not just this, though, he's had some positions that for all his popularity is not going to sit well with the right wing of the party, so this will just be one more thing they can point to and say, look, he's not ideologically conservative enough, he's not the kind of guy that we want carrying the banner. >> yeah, but you know what, i'm going to say this, i think he won a lot of support, even from democrats who may have looked at christie after the republican convention with a jaundice eye. i heard at least from my listeners, you know what, he's not that bad of a guy. they ended up having a lot of respect for him. so, you know, he may -- >> no, i mean, i accept that, joe and michelle, and one who lives in new york mostly when i'm not on the road. i've never been a great fan of christie. and i respect what he did. and i hear that from a lot of

circles. i'm talking about even in new jersey, democratic circles that they want what he did. michelle said it, you said it, they were under water, and some of them still have no power. and i think that people didn't get how dire the circumstances was and what he did was just the responsible thing to do by being attacked, it made it even more important that he did it. joe madison and michelle cottle, thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you. ahead, nearly 100 republicans are trying to strip susan rice from her rice. she doesn't even have. what is behind the witch hunt? congressman james clyburn joins us next. i have a cold, and i took nyquil,

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butt. >> these planned parenthood all these women who have been neutering american men and bringing us to the point of this incredible weakness to let them know we won't have our men become subservient. one thing a warrior loves is the smell of fear and desperation in his adversary. >> they even have a tanning tax. you want to talk about something racist, come on. come o black people. >> i believe there's about 78 to 81 members of the democratic party that are members of the communist party. i want to close by saying this -- i'm the liberal's worst nightmare. >> the liberal's worst nightmare? not anymore. now he's barely a memory. 1. and one wedding, 2 kids, 43 bottles of olay total effects many birthdays later, still looks amazing.

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institute republican conspiracy theory on the libya tax it

crumbling. and that's not stopping republicans from their witch hunt against susan rice. they say the u.n. ambassador isn't qualified for a promotion to secretary of state, because of her statements about the benghazi attacks. even though we know she was just going by the information she got from intelligence officials. bult but republicans don't want fact to get in the way. >> we will do whatever's necessary to block the nomination. >> this president and this administration has either been guilty of colossal incompetence or engaged in a cover-up. >> i don't trust her. the reason i don't trust her is because i think she knew better. and if she did know better, she shouldn't be the voice of america. >> and now 97 house republicans who have zero say over cabinet nominations, are opposing rice's possible nomination. they sent a letter to the white

house saying her credibility has been wounded. they keep changing their story in this made-up conspiracy theory. i want to know why they're in such a frenzy over susan rice. joining me now is democratic congressman james clyburn from south carolina. he's the third highest ranking democrat in the house. congressman, thank you for being here tonight, first of all. >> well, thank you so much for having me. good to see you. >> now -- good to see you. some of your republican colleagues claim ambassador rice is, quote, incompetent. what is that based on? >> well, it's based on some series of, i would call it, attempts to derail the career of one of the most outstanding ambassadors we have ever had in this country. this young lady has been a part of government and the

governmental process for more than 20 years. i worked with with her very closely when i was chair of the congressional black caucus. she was handling the africa desk at the department of state. she's well seasoned. in the clinton administration. she is in think tanks for eight years after that. she's now been the ambassador to the united nations for four years, almost 20 years, ph.d. rhodes scholar, and i'm very proud of her because her roots are right here in south carolina. i knew her father, emmitt rice, and to call a person with those kind of credentials incompetent is something that's insulting to me because that harkens back to the campaign. you remember in the campaign, governor sununu calling the president incompetent, lazy. that's the kind of code words they use that upsets a lot of

people, like me. >> well, let me -- let me push on you that code word stuff. when you look at her background, some of which you named, 2009 ambassador to the u.n., 2004 foreign policy adviser to john kerry, 19 '93 to 2001 an official in the clinton administration, a rhodes scholar, went to sanford, a ph.d. from oxford university. yet when you hear conservatives talk about her being incompetent and unqualified, look at these conserve ty statements and see how you put that up against her resume. >> what she said was absolutely and completely misleading, either inadvertently, in which casist complete incompetence. >> i don't think she deserves to be promoted. there are a lot of qualified people in this country the president could pick. >> susan rice should have known better.

if she didn't know better, she's not qualified. if this committee clears of of any wrongdoing, other than not being very bright because it was, quote, not a flash mob. >> not very bright, not competent, shouldn't be promoted, not qualified. >> all code words. these words i've been hearing all my life. i would hire one of them, a qualified one. this lady is as qualified as anybody that's ever served in government. and i think it's time for these people to stop this foolishness. i have to give senator mccain credit, he's put out a statement that he now knows susan rice was not responsible for the information that she read. he now knows where it came from. he's now disappointed that nobody told him where it came from. well, i think it's time for him to apologize.

he called on her during a sunday talk show to apologize. and if she were to apologize, he might rethink his position. now that he has the facts, maybe it's time for him to apologize for trying to besmerch the character of this young lady. it's time for senator mccain to do what any honorable person would do and say i was wrong and i take back all that i ever said about this. >> and he had called on her last sunday to apologize. now he is saying that he found out different information. we'll wait and see if he apologizes. >> i think it would be a long wait because this man is not in this for the facts. he's still upset over the 2008 election. he is still having a battle with

the president. anybody that's been associated with that campaign in 2008 -- in fact, it was during that year that i really got to know susan, like i knew her father. because she worked in south carolina during the 2008 campaign and reminded me at that time that her roots were here in this state. she's a very competent woman. i said, please nominate her and did it as soon as this morning for your second term. >> congressman james clyburn, thank you for your time tonight. have a great thanksgiving to you and the family. >> same to you, my man. thank you so much. >> ahead, two weeks after president obama won the state of wisconsin, scott walker wants to change the voting rules. is he kidding? i have something to say about this. next.

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♪ oh what a relief it is! ♪ [ male announcer ] to learn more about the cold truth and save $1 visit alka-seltzer on facebook. just two weeks after president obama won the state of wisconsin, governor scott walker is taking aim at voting laws. >> states across the country that have same-day registration have real problems because the vast majority of states have poll work whoever have wonderful volunteers who work 13-hour days, most cases are retirees. it's difficult for them to handle the kind of valiant of folks who come at the last minute. it would be much better if registration was done in advance of election day. >> oh, yeah, it would be much better to change, way too much volume. same-day registration has been a law in wisconsin for 40 years. i wonder why he wants to change it now? what could be the reason?

we don't have this year's numbers yet but in 2008 wisconsin had the second highest turnout of any state. 72% of eligible voters voted. that's a great thing. but scott walker has been a one-man wrecking crew when it comes to voting rights. in may of last year, he pushed through a voter i.d. bill, but in july of this year a judge declared wisconsin's voter i.d. law unconstitutional. and it was not in place for the election. republicans think not having the law made the difference. just listen to what the romney campaign wisconsin's co-chair said on local tv. >> do you think photo i.d. would have made any difference? the outcome of this election? >> absolutely, yes. >> voter i.d. would have made the difference. but we've heard republicans in other states also spill the beans. >> voter i.d., which is going to allow governor romney to win the state of pennsylvania, done.